MnDOT shares their next steps in the I-35 construction project

MnDOT is now getting ready to pave Lower Michigan Street so they can use it as a temporary road for I-35, as they continue to work on construction.

They will be shifting south bound traffic on to Lower Michigan Street and northbound traffic on the southbound roadway. Traffic is expected to transfer come October.

The huge project is expected to end around summer of 2024. It’s a big undertaking as they are getting rid of the “can of worms”, bridges of I-35, and put in a more modern structure that is similar to a modern roadway.

Keeping most of the road on the ground would cut maintenance coasts drastically and would help during help with winter conditions.

Along with paving Lower Michigan Street the teams are also working on their lower ground improvements. As the current soil under the freeway isn’t stable for the steel beams to be implanted for the new system.

The total cost of the project will be around two-hundred-seventy-million dollars. Which is a cost that is needed to change requirements for an industry decades in the past.
“More than anything this area was different. This area was actually railroad on the Lincoln Park side of the freeway. And before the freeway this was all a rail yard. And back then folks used highway 23 and highway 61. So just built in a different era”, says Assistant District Engineer Patrick Huston.

And with a huge work area, the crew has to constantly make million dollar decisions. For example if they need to buy certain structures to adapt the land. Like they did for the merge of Miller and Coffee Creek. Making planning a huge aspect of construction.

“Oh we always try to be stewards of taxpayer dollars. And we, like any other public agency, have been very limited in dollars and we try to spread that as much as we can”, says Construction Manager Peter Marthaler.

MnDOT will also be holding a virtual meeting on Monday which you can find the link right here.